Garden Curry Rice

Curry rice is pretty much the equivalent of spaghetti in Japan.  It's quick, all kids will eat it and it's a full meal in one dish.  It's easy to make because you can get all the flavoring in cube form at any slightly diverse grocery store.  (We get them at central market.)  Yes, it is cheating a little bit, but it still requires some cooking and makes cooking dinner at home super easy.  Better than eating out, dontcha think?

We make a batch of it every few months (and eat on it for a couple days since it is physically impossible for my sis and I to make a small batch of the stuff.)  The reason I'm writing about it this time is because our most recent batch included a ton of ingredients from our garden.  Trust me, it made everything taste better.

All from my garden.  Yum!

The label even says it's tasty.

Ingredients:
*One box Japanese curry cubes
*Potatoes
*Onions
*Carrots
*Protein (Chicken, Beef, Tofu, etc.)
*Whatever else you want in it... we often use sweet potato, kabocha squash, mushrooms, broccoli, and peas.  (Not all at once though, you have to restrict yourself somewhere.)

Ok, chop up all the stuff into bite size cubes.  Take a large stew pot and add a couple tablespoons of cooking oil (olive or vegetable) and saute the onions for a bit.  If you have beef or chicken this is a good time to cook them as well with the onions.  The tofu can wait till later.

Once the onions are cooked through, add 6-8 cups of water and the vegetables that need thorough cooking (like the carrots and potatoes).  Let the water almost come to a boil and add the curry cubes.  I like to chop the cubes up a bit before adding them to help them dissolve but they can just be tossed in as well.  Stir until the cubes are mixed in and let simmer on low for about 10 minutes.

Add the rest of your ingredients and cook until they're cooked through.  The longer this curry sits the tastier it will be, so if you have the time to start early, do it and let the curry just sit around on low heat for a few hours.  Serve over hot rice and enjoy!  There will most likely be leftovers, which in my opinion tastes better than the first time around. 

Usually there's more stuff but this was the bottom of the pot.